[easybox]Welcome Adam Styborski to the staff of ManaNation.com's weekly writers. He'll be contributing weekly on Wednesdays![/easybox]

If you've stopped in because you're curious, know me or my other works, or are just plain confused let me welcome you to something a little different. Unlike many of my fellow writers out there I'm not on the cutting edge of the competitive world or looking to dispense the advice to take you there. In fact, while I follow along and recognize the big names and featured cards, I avoid virtually all competitive Magic – most of my honest attempts have ended in disastrous reminders of my competitive skill level.

Which leads to an excellent question: What do I have to share? I already talk about everything fun under the sun and there's only so much to I can share about the "casual" Magic fare in the world. But therein lies something else I'm passionate about: the ontology and epistemology of Magic, specifically the terms and concepts we communally share.

I do feel obligated to point out that I am by no standard or measure an expert in the field of Magic philosophy. Then again, I'm wagering that you aren't either. It's going to be an interesting journey through the history of the game, with small side treks into intriguing diversions, and I hope what I discover and share sheds new light onto the things you take for granted.

Perhaps one of the most common terms taken for granted is "casual" Magic. There are a lot of ways to look at casual; these are some of the ways I see most often:

• Casual means not competitive
• Casual is the land of four Black Lotus and Yawgmoth's Will
• Casual is all about having fun
• Casual is weird stuff like Elder Dragon Highlander, Type 4, and Unglued
• Casual means bad players

Playing off some of the commentary from MTGColorpie's The Middle Children of Magic, I was quoted (via Twitter) as saying "it's the how everything around the game was played rather than the goal of the way the game was played." Of course, 140 characters is a little tight to properly explain the context and meaning of that somewhat cryptic statement.

Fortunately I wasn't alone.

As Robby suggests, I believe there is a strong middle ground between "the Pros and those aspiring to be" and "the guy with 200 cards who picked it up once." Unlike Robby I believe this middle ground is casual Magic. Robby argued that there is a discrepancy between levels of investment some players have – defining virtually no investment as casual and complete investment as the professionally competitive side. But level of investment is more a continuum and measuring stick of passion than attitudinal approach to the game.

Let's compare Magic to "Halo: Combat Evolved" and its myriad of successor sequels. Do you know some friends who have played more Halo than anything else? Virtually every night of the week, including weekends, you could find multiple guys (and some girls) playing Halo in college rooms across the US. These guys were certainly not professional gamers, or even aspiring to be professional gamers, but they loved their game, custom maps, and acquaintance teammates from across the Internet. They played to have fun and always seem to look forward to grinding out a few hours even if they cursed, spat, and vexed about whatever opponent seemed to be killing them the most.

These guys were heavily invested – they planned time to play and went out of their way (i.e. skipped class) to get more time in. But they were certainly to be considered casual Halo players – none would call "playing Halo" a profession beyond jocular joking. Magic has just as devoted players who love the game, variants and formats (or variant formats like EDH), and the network of acquaintance friends from across the internet with whom they discuss the game in all its dimensions. They "take Magic seriously" without actually committing to international travel and competitive sportsmanship.

Remind you of anyone you know?

I know dozens of players who spend a lot of time reading (perhaps even writing or podcasting), playing the game (even dabbling into the competitive from time to time), and seeking out those who want to get down with a funky fresh way of playing (though some ways to play, like EDH, are certainly not longer funky or fresh). I also know just as many players who love the game but don't know what CoolStuffInc.com is or follow any of the weekly postings of articles at places like (right here) ManaNation.com – and some aren't even aware that cards for new sets get previewed online. Yet many of these not-as-invested players are the fairly regular features at the card stores I've seen, plopping down different decks, always looking for the same that those highly invested are looking for: to play a great game of Magic.

Remind you of anyone you know?

Magic exists in more than just "competitive" and "casual" buckets but a spectrum of involvement and goals. Most of the "top" aspiring Pros consider FNM more casual than competitive – as seen by comments on numerous boards dedicated to Standard and Limited – but for many players out there FNM is the competitive scene, with all the familiar faces of decks they hear being talked about as well as the experimental and rogue pet decks some are rather fond of. No one is confused why there are "net decks" at FNMs (though liking the idea is a different story).

The Casual Competitive

I'm not going to lie and claim I have no interest in professional Magic. I have a strong appreciation of playing "for keeps" and can get behind the intellectual and strategic challenges of engaging opponents in the most intense manner available: putting money on your mouth and mind. My involvement and skill, however, keep that interest in check. Like Robby, I don't have time to devote to honing my mental blade, sharpening the mind in order to effectively execute my game against opponents. My reasons are varied but the result is the same: I choose other stuff rather than devoting more time to Magic.

Perhaps more poignantly, in the words of Sam Stoddard from Monday's article (click here for part 1), I make a lot of misclicks, blunders, and punts in the games I play. But I also, on occasion, play very tight games under the right circumstances. When Zendikar was first released I picked up Kelly Reid's Boros Bushwhacker deck and took it to FNM. I love me some red-white aggro and I was excited to swing big and deal lots of damage, and the Bushwhacker deck was definitely strong and fast enough to crush anything other than Jund. Needless to say I crushed two rounds but fell in a very tight game three against one of the best local players playing... Jund. It literally came down to whether or not I would top deck any burn spell in my deck. I didn't despite having seven left in my library.

What's the moral of the story? My point is that I showed up without practice and managed to play to my terms of success. Could I have reviewed the match against Jund and determined where I could have made more optimal choices and plays, pushing myself to break through and perform better "the next time"? Absolutely I could, I just have no desire to go farther than where I was able to reach.

And perhaps that is the most distinguishing characteristic of the casual masses and the competitive crowd: satisfaction. Many of us are satisfied just winning a few games, or just having the time to play a few. Others have a self-imposed demand for more and actively hunger to move up in terms of recognizable success. I play and think about Magic just as much as some semi-professional players but without the weight of "What am I doing?" slung over my shoulders.

And that weight is perhaps the second most distinguishing characteristic of those less inclined to be competitive: the attitude that the desire to compete somehow interferes with or stops the ability to have fun. For those who ride the rollercoaster of highs and lows of playing at the biggest events, it's completely untrue that playing competitively is somehow unfun or painful. You can have a rough day of matches but come away smiling: I saw it personally at Grand Prix DC. Just as similarly you can have a casual event become very competitive, as those who participated in the "casual" EDH Tournament displayed. It was still very fun and wacky but eyes were definitely on the prize(s). Competitiveness can be fun just the same as goofy fun can get competitive.

I'm Right, You're Wrong (Tomfoolery)

It's when players with different expectations and goals meet to play that the rift between casual and profession becomes apparent. As a casual type I generally like to do what my deck wants to do. Winning is just icing to the token-making recursion aggro control madness cake that makes up most casual decks. What goes through the minds of professional players when they find out they're playing someone's "weird blue-green elf deck" instead of UW Control, Jund, or Mythic Conscription is beyond me, though the best I've heard is, "That's cute," as they plow through to the win.

What satisfies a player has much more to do with how "casual" they are than any amount of gameplay, reading, and overall investment in the game. Last week I sat down with some new players in the card shop since they brought along EDH decks. However the environment they came from is much more competitive than the one that exists among my friends. To say "I had my ass kicked." is an understatement to the repeated, royal thrusting I took.

But then, in a later game, it happened. Rhys the Redeemed, Seedborn Muse, and Rings of the Brighthearth teamed up to exponentially increase my token count every turn. While one player rattlesnaked the Engineered Explosives (set to zero without any counters on it) I top decked Natural Order – which fetched me Citanul Hierophants (a card they didn't see coming). The Explosives couldn't stop me from getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,400 green mana which was more than enough to combo out using Sensei's Diving Top and Rings to draw out and play my library. The Akroma's Memorial with Khamal, Fist of Krosa would have been more than enough to power up any tokens I could make (via Ant Queen and other various sources). Since no one had an answer to this chain of events the game ended in an immediate mass scoop.

The game ended in a very unsatisfying way. My deck isn't designed to combo out but it was an option that presented itself and, without a second thought, I took it. I was frustrated at my previous losses that night, the ability of the Horde of Notions deck to have a seemingly infinite array of answers, threats, and card draw, and the knowledge that this was the "weaker, fun" EDH deck he had on hand. I played not to enjoy but to utterly crush which, it turned out, was too late for me to be having fun. I stopped playing for the rest of the night – content to mull things over and sort some cards – which led me to review exactly what happened and why.

While I certainly was playing "casual" Magic with "casual" players it turned out much different than I thought it would. At a basic level, the expectations I have of EDH were starkly different than the expectations he brought with him, and our decks showed it. He needed a deck with answers and efficiency to play against other players, while I cater to more slow, linear progression without any hidden agenda (Make Token, Swing Big).

Does this mean he's not a casual player since, after all, he brought with him EDH decks designed for 1v1 competitive play? I think not as our expectations differed but goals were the same: have fun doing splashy things with lots of mana. I just lost sight of my goal in a moment of a furious drive to win – and that's precisely where the fun stopped happening for everyone. While bringing a gun to a knife fight is certainly the "smart, correct, superior, next level play" it isn't very fair for the guy who showed up with a chivalric sense of honor to duel to the death with knives. Zvi Mowshowitz, a true professional as I have seen, was apt to say that he rather preferred playing unfair by bringing decks that broke as many rules of the game as it could. Turns out that's a good way to win games – something that matters for the professional players.

That is a Really Long Definition You Got There

So what am I really getting at? Have I defined casual any better than the obtuse, incomplete statements we hear and make daily? When I said "the how everything around the game was played rather than the goal of the way the game was played" I meant that even when playing tough games, with lots of awkward effects wrecking mana, creatures, and other goodies I like to play out, I'm enjoying the company and camaraderie of the most fantastic players I can recall. I came for the people as much as the game, Horde of Notions and stupid mana combos be damned. We weren't evaluating plays, trying to determine how best to jockey for position, but instead high-fiving the crazy ones even as they wiped the board. It's hard not to smile when someone asks you "Do you want any Elephants?" as they bring Terastodon back from the dead a few times (I declined). It's hard to hold a grudge when the same guy grinding you out again is also lending cards and decks to two other players so they can join in the fun – and who would otherwise be sitting out the session.

"Grins, not wins." is what best lumps together those who could be identified as "casual" players. We're always looking for what makes us smile, not necessarily what makes us win (though sometimes it happens to overlap). We're looking to explore and try the new, but also carry our old-standby decks for classic formats. We buy, trade, and hold cards a little different than the cutting edge because we place sentimental value and memories into the cardboard we sling – though we've traded away plenty to help the tournament players have their decks ready for whatever-the-hell big event they're going to go to.

Timmy, Johnny, Spike, Vorthos, Melvin, Dave – I have more than a half-dozen ways to classify players that aren't restricted to the bounds of casual and professional. Casual and professional aren't as clear cut or defined as the psychographic profiles defined by Mark Rosewater. Casual and professional are just terms with too much baggage, too much variance, to be used effectively as definitions and classifications.

But we're going to continue using them anyway as they are part of the social culture we have created. I'm a "casual" player and many of you are "casual" players, but most importantly we're all unique players. I look forward to meeting more of you – at the biggest events and smallest get-togethers – whether you're casual or not but each of us brings something a little unique to the world of Magic.

Join me next week when I hope to provoke a reaction out of my proactive posturing.